Testing IgG antibodies against the RBD of SARS-CoV-2 is sufficient and necessary for COVID-19 diagnosis

PLoS One. 2020 Nov 23;15(11):e0241164. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0241164. eCollection 2020.

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic and the fast global spread of the disease resulted in unprecedented decline in world trade and travel. A critical priority is, therefore, to quickly develop serological diagnostic capacity and identify individuals with past exposure to SARS-CoV-2. In this study serum samples obtained from 309 persons infected by SARS-CoV-2 and 324 of healthy, uninfected individuals as well as serum from 7 COVID-19 patients with 4-7 samples each ranging between 1-92 days post first positive PCR were tested by an "in house" ELISA which detects IgM, IgA and IgG antibodies against the receptor binding domain (RBD) of SARS-CoV-2. Sensitivity of 47%, 80% and 88% and specificity of 100%, 98% and 98% in detection of IgM, IgA and IgG antibodies, respectively, were observed. IgG antibody levels against the RBD were demonstrated to be up regulated between 1-7 days after COVID-19 detection, earlier than both IgM and IgA antibodies. Study of the antibody kinetics of seven COVID 19 patients revealed that while IgG levels are high and maintained for at least 3 months, IgM and IgA levels decline after a 35-50 days following infection. Altogether, these results highlight the usefulness of the RBD based ELISA, which is both easy and cheap to prepare, to identify COVID-19 patients even at the acute phase. Most importantly our results demonstrate that measuring IgG levels alone is both sufficient and necessary to diagnose past exposure to SARS-CoV-2.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adolescent
  • Adult
  • Aged
  • Aged, 80 and over
  • Antibodies, Viral / immunology*
  • COVID-19 / blood
  • COVID-19 / diagnosis*
  • COVID-19 / epidemiology*
  • COVID-19 / virology
  • COVID-19 Serological Testing / methods*
  • Cohort Studies
  • Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Immunoglobulin A / blood
  • Immunoglobulin A / immunology
  • Immunoglobulin G / blood
  • Immunoglobulin G / immunology*
  • Immunoglobulin M / blood
  • Immunoglobulin M / immunology
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • Pandemics*
  • Protein Domains / immunology*
  • Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction
  • SARS-CoV-2 / genetics
  • SARS-CoV-2 / immunology*
  • Sensitivity and Specificity
  • Young Adult

Substances

  • Antibodies, Viral
  • Immunoglobulin A
  • Immunoglobulin G
  • Immunoglobulin M

Grants and funding

YL is supported by the Nehemia Rubin Excellence in Biomedical Research – The TELEM Program of Chaim Sheba Medical Center. The funder had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.